How to succeed in your business development strategy in 2021?

With more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing and CRM, I have experienced the entire evolution of the Internet, from the showcase site to the 4.0 store.

I was responsible for the digital division: this is where I saw the limits of digital and technology, when men and women don’t follow and don’t use the tools.

This is why I trained in individual and collective coaching. I am now a certified coach and trainer.

With Bernard Philippe, we co-founded Digital’Ease & You to enable micro-businesses and SMEs to save time in the process (economy/profitability), acquire new customers and increase their turnover thanks to digital.

How has the health crisis changed consumer behavior?

The health crisis has accelerated the digitalisation of SMEs in France by 7 years. Consumers are increasingly demanding about the customer experience they have with the company through its digital channels.

They want to be recognized immediately and not waste time.

This is why customer knowledge and recognition are essential, hence the importance for microbusinesses and SMEs to have a CRM.

It allows them to enrich their customer knowledge, acquire new prospects and retain them.

What are the new challenges to face for micro-enterprises and SMEs?

Customer relationship and experience are essential for businesses and they need to work on it both digitally and physically.

Customers need to be able to navigate very easily between the digital and real worlds seamlessly – all of this requires real work from micro-businesses and SMEs.

These companies must ask for help from experts to succeed in this new challenge, acquire new customers, succeed in their business development and not lose market share.

The health crisis has accelerated the digitalization of SMEs, sometimes too quickly. As a result, 2 problems emerged:

• 59% of SMEs have faced serious technical incidents,
• 76% of them are concerned about the human and organizational impact of digital transformation (according to data from AppDynamics’ Agents of Transformation 2020 report).

It is important to train or receive help to apply good practices within your digital projects, before implementing new tools. Digital cannot be improvised!

What are the keys to a successful business development strategy for microbusinesses and SMEs?

The key to a successful business development strategy for SMEs and SMEs is above all to know your market, your customers and their uses. It is therefore necessary to define:

• its quantified objectives,
• priority objectives,
• his offers.

Then identify where these targets can be reached in commercial actions or marketing/communications, define a sales funnel.

Depending on the commercial or communication actions implemented, organize yourself, get help or recruit according to your needs.

Set up a CRM for your salespeople and/or your marketing department, collect customer data and use it to acquire new customers and retain them.

How has data mastery become essential for micro-businesses and SMEs today?

Data is the new GOLD for businesses. Microbusinesses and SMEs need to understand the importance of this data.

To acquire customers and retain them, you have to put yourself in their shoes!

This is a change in attitude for businesses. Listening and empathy towards your customers are fundamental. You have to learn to know them a little more every day and memorize them using the CRM software.

Digital technology and in particular CRM allow the collection of multiple customer data that the company must wisely reuse, in compliance with the GDPR, to improve its customer experience and relationships with customers.

This action is essential today in an increasingly digitalized world.

What are the risks inherent in managing this data and how can we protect ourselves from them?

If the company doesn’t have customer data classified, structured and stored in a CRM, how can it improve in an increasingly digital world?

How will he be able to create a relational bond if he does not precisely know the data of each customer?

There is a risk of losing some, of not being able to seize opportunities and market shares in the face of competitors, who will increasingly master the personalization of communication and relationship marketing.

To protect yourself from this, you need to carefully choose your CRM based on your team’s business needs and user journeys.

You also need to start good practices now by structuring all this customer data, importing it into a CRM (the sooner, the better).

This allows you to protect your data and increase the knowledge of your customers over the years, fueled by sellers and/or marketing actions.

Subsequently, you will have to learn how to carry out relationship marketing actions to enrich your customer database and retain them.

To overcome these digitalisation milestones, step by step, micro-enterprises and SMEs can benefit from training through the OPCO and/or digital subsidies provided by their region.

What is the number 1 criterion for choosing a CRM that is right for your business?

There are so many CRM tools out there, it’s a very lucrative market. They are designed for sectors and do not always correspond to the company, which is unique.

In order for the CRM tool to be used according to your success indicators, it must match the specific needs of your company.

Additionally, CRMs can be very expensive. If the company wants a return on its investment, it must take the time to clearly define its needs. Today, 70% of CRM projects still fail.

The consequences are disastrous for companies (loss of money, demobilization of teams, etc.). In digital, we often recommend “taking the time to go faster” or “taking the time to do otherwise you will take the time to redo”.

Criterion No. 1 is therefore to define your needs WELL by involving the team of users, in order to establish precise and clear specifications, and then select 2 or 3 CRMs corresponding to the company’s needs.

This definition of needs must be carried out by designing the paths of the users of each profession, in order to project their shortcomings, their daily needs, and therefore the functionality of the CRM tool.

According to an interview conducted by Alexandra Patard published on September 10, 2021 on the Moderator’s Blog.